Nightwing and Robin: Growing Pains
by MissScorp
Summary: When Damian struggles to figure out how to know when someone is worthy of his friendship, there's only one person he can think to ask. K for family bonding and brotherhood. One-shot. Complete.


**A/N:** This story is set after events that occur in one of my other stories **Love & Bullets**.

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"Tell me about how you knew Raya was worthy of becoming your friend, Dick," Damian commanded on the tail edge of a wide yawn. Dick cocked a glance over at his demanding sibling, the ends of his long lips stretching into a tired smile.

"Aren't ya a bit old for bedtime stories, Dami?" he teased as he pulled a t-shirt from the chest of drawers situated under the window. He tossed the shirt on the bed even as he heard Damian make a _Tt_ sound.

"I do not care for your implication that I am a _child_, Grayson."

Dick turned to look at Damian while running a towel over his still damp hair. "You're the one who commanded that I tell you about how I knew Raya was worthy of becoming my friend," he said. "That sounds an awful lot like a bedtime story to me."

"I am _not_ a child," the young superhero snarled. "And I do not _want_, nor do I _need_ you to tell me a bedtime story."

He continued to glare at Dick for a few more heated moments before he tossed himself face down on the bed. Dick studied the taut line of Damian's back, one eyebrow arched in surprise over his nastier than usual attitude. Clearly his baby bird was in a bad mood. If there was one thing that he knew he was really good at doing, it was teasing his cranky bird out of his black moods.

"Huh," there was a crackle of amusement in his tone now. "You're sure looking good for an eleven-year old going on forty then, Dami."

Damian muttered beneath his breath, but the only word Dick caught was "ass." _Hrm, he's sure touchier than usual tonight_, the older hero thought with a slight frown. _Wonder if something happened between him and Bruce while they were out on patrol_. Deciding there was only one way to find out, Dick tossed his towel into the chair by the fireplace before walking over and sitting beside Damian on the bed.

"Care to talk about it, Dami?" he asked him gently.

"Talk about what?" Damian mumbled without turning over.

"Whatever it is that is bothering you."

There was another _Tt_ before Damian gritted, "Why do you think something is bothering me?"

Dick set a hand upon his back and immediately noticed how the boy's spine was as rigid and inflexible as a branch of the old tree that was outside the bedroom window. It told him that whatever was bothering him ran deep, and was likely very personal. Emotions were like sailing uncharted waters for Damian Wayne. It was something he'd lamented over after he'd become the boy's partner and guardian. Raya had told him back when Damian first came into his life how understanding social norms, as well as building interpersonal and socialization skills would come the more they showed him what those things were. A normative interpersonal relationship was akin to unholy warfare when Damian first came to them.

It was (and still could be) an exercise in patience whenever Damian laid challenges and threats down upon Tim. Yet, even those instances of hostility were becoming fewer and more far between. That was something Dick solely attributed to his absent fiancée. Raya didn't tend to allow Damian to pick on Tim, or to threaten him with bloody vengeance whenever he got (as she eloquently put it), "his feathers in a twitter." In the three years (good God, was Damian really about to turn twelve? Dick wondered silently) since the boy came into their lives, he'd discovered there was more to life than killing or being the best at everything. He'd learned what it was to be part of a family, to be wanted for who he was and not for the ends mean he presented. The little alien had learned what it meant to _love_ and be loved in return.

Damian had become like any other kid, he realized. He loved playing video games, romping around the manor with his big black mutt, Titus, reading comic books and clowning around with at least two of his older brothers (his relationship with Tim was still a work in progress). Yes, Dick realized, Damian had gone from being a pugnacious and violent little alien to just being a regular kid. He was a moderately normal, but _about-to-be-twelve-year-old _boy. A light flipped on inside Dick's brain.

_Oho_, he thought, casting a speculative glance down upon the silent Robin. _Could it be he's met a girl and is wondering about how to pursue a friendship with her_? It was definitely a possibility. Damian had just started attending a regular school and was around kids his own age for the first time in his life. Things like friends (and girls) were a growing pain he was going to go through. It was part of that step which separated childhood from adolescence. _And with Damian already struggling with social skills and forming things like friendship, it's easy to understand he'd be all twisted up into knots over something like this_. Realizing he'd not likely get an honest answer at this point, Dick stretched out on the bed beside his little brother, crossed his ankles left over right and folded his arms behind his head before saying,

"I knew Raya was worthy of being my friend from the moment I looked into her eyes," he said quietly. "She's always had a rather fascinating way of looking at someone and seeing them for who they are, and not what they are." His lips curved as he allowed his mind to drift back momentarily. "I knew when Raya first looked at me that she saw _me_, and not some charity case, or Bruce Wayne's ward, or just some dirty circus freak he took pity upon. She didn't care about who I was, or where I'd come from. She saw me, and for me, that was enough to tell me she was worthy of becoming my friend."

Damian glanced at him from over his shoulder. "That was it? That was how you knew she was worthy of being your friend?" He snorted and flipped back over. "You are not being much help here, Grayson."

"Well, friendship isn't an immediate thing, Dami."

He heard a _ffff_ sound and some mumbled words. He grinned. _Got it bad, huh, kiddo_? he asked silently. _Well, join the club_.

"Friendship is just like tending a garden." He ran a hand over that downy cap of hair, trying to soothe the feathers which were ruffled by the uncertainty and confusion coursing through his veins. "If you don't take time to cultivate that garden, or to nurture it, it will not grow."

"But how do you know?" came his muffled question. "How am I to know when someone is worthy of taking that time? How do I know they are worth me cultivating a friendship with them? When do you know someone is worth your friendship?"

"How'd ya know I was worthy of being your friend?" Dick asked him softly. "Or that Raya was?"

Damian cast a quick glance over his shoulder at him. "I just knew."

Dick smiled. "Exactly."

Damian heaved a sigh before he sat up and faced his older brother. "Why does it have to be so complicated?" His eyes flashed with his frustration and glinted with an unspoken plea for his older brother to uncomplicated the complicated ocean he was swimming in. "Why does friendship have to require so much of an effort?"

"'Cause we wouldn't enjoy the rewards of that friendship if it wasn't something we had to work hard for."

"Was your friendship with Raya always worth the efforts it took?"

"I'm marrying the woman, Damian." Dick pointed out with a grin. "So I'd say my friendship with her has been more than worth it."

"That's different though," Damian complained with a small huff. "You're _marrying_ Raya. You're not just _friends_ with her. Not anymore."

Dick draped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into his side before saying, "I'm marrying my _best_ friend, Damian."

"Well that's because you and Raya are the exception, not the norm."

Dick playfully ruffled his hair. "Why, thank you," he teased as Damian slapped at his hand with a low growl. "We do try our best to not follow any of those sticky rules and expectations people have about love and friendship."

"Except when you forget about the rules and kiss on top of the Society of Gotham Pioneers building in front of every news camera in Gotham," he snarked with a snort.

Dick shot him a lopsided grin. "Well, when _you've_ just rescued the damsel in distress..."

"Yeah, yeah," Damian groused with a roll of his eyes. "Even if I do end up saving the damsel in distress, I'll still remember Father's lecture about traffic camera's and news helicopters."

Dick snorted a laugh. _Little wise ass_, he thought as he hugged the kid close. _Has a point though. Raya and I have ended up on the pages of Gotham's social pages four times now because we weren't minding where we were. _

"Dick?" Damian asked, cocking his head to look up at the older hero. Dick glanced down at him.

"Yes, Dami?"

His expression relaxed into a kind of intense concentration, almost like a sense of doubt and youthful confusion. "Is it worth it in the end?"

Dick hid a grin. Had he ever been this uncertain? This nervous? He made a mental note to ask Raya when she got home. "It's totally worth it," he told Damian honestly. "Friendship is what gave me the love of my life."

Damian made a _Tt_ sound, but he seemed satisfied by the answer. Especially when he asked a second later, "Can we watch a movie while waiting for Raya to get home from patrol?"

"Sure," Dick said easily. "Whatcha in the mood to watch?"

"Can we watch _Star Wars_?"

"As long as it's not any of those god awful Prequel movies," Dick said, barely quelling a shudder. "Those movies are only tolerable when I want to sleep."

Damian's only reply was a snort.


End file.
